Mobile communication devices typically communicate over wireless networks and through network (serving) access points (e.g., Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN) Node Bs, or evolved Node Bs, or eNBs). Different services (e.g., data, voice, video, etc.), may have different quality of service or connection reliability requirements. A highly-reliable and/or ultra-reliable connection is difficult to maintain between a network (or serving) access point and a target mobile device. For instance, the movement of the target mobile device, environmental conditions, geographical or building obstructions, etc., may cause loss of signal quality in the connection or link between the network access point and the target mobile device. Some scenarios that may cause loss of signal quality can include, e.g., fading, the attenuation of signal quality over certain propagation media, or shadowing, where large obstructions obscure the main signal path between the transmitter and the receiver.
One solution to address such signal quality loss may involve time diversity of transmissions, which can increase latency. Another solution to address such signal quality loss may involve frequency diversity of transmissions. Using this approach, all devices (e.g., service access points, such as eNBs, and mobile devices, also referred to as user equipment or UE) should be able to operate across different frequency spectrums, bands and/or carriers. Yet another solution to address such signal quality loss may involve spatial diversity of transmissions. This approach generally requires the service access points and/or mobile devices to be equipped with a plurality of antennas.